Grateful Dead tribute to benefit HIV charity

4AD have announced Day of the Dead, a celebration of the Grateful Dead’s music, for 20th May. It was created and curated by brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National and is the follow-up to 2009’s Dark Was The Night (4AD), a 32-track, multi-artist compilation also produced by Aaron and Bryce.The compilation took four years to record, features over 60 artists, 59 tracks and is almost six hours long. The set will be released digitally, on 5xCD, and as a limited edition vinyl boxed set. All profits will help fight for AIDS/HIV and related health issues around the world through the charity Red Hot Organisation.

Produced by Aaron Dessner, and co-produced by Bryce Dessner and Josh Kaufman, many of the 59 tracks features a house band made up of Aaron, Bryce, fellow National bandmates and brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf, Josh Kaufman, and Conrad Doucette along with Sam Cohen and Walter Martin.

4AD has published a Spotify playlist matching song-by-song the Day of the Dead tracklist, providing a look at the compilation’s era-specific Grateful Dead source material.